Women's Soccer Snaps Home Winning Streak with Loss to North Dakota State, 2-1.

Sunday, August 31

Greeley, Colorado

12 pm

University of Northern Colorado

1-3-0

North Dakota State

4-0-0

Team	1	2	Final F
North Dakota State	0	2	2
UNCO	0	1	1

8/31/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. – The Northern Colorado women's soccer team could not fight off a late second half attack from North Dakota State on Sunday, falling to the Bison, 2-1. The loss snaps an eight-game home winning streak at Jackson Stadium, dating back to the 2013 season.

Lauren Miller scored the game-winning goal in the 79th minute to give NDSU the win, while handing UNC its second straight loss of the season. Three days after suffering a heartbreaking, 1-0 loss at the hands of Colorado State, the Bears came back in strong fashion, being much more aggressive on the offensive side of the ball and playing the Bison to a draw until deep into the second half.

"Our goal was to come out and play fast with lots of intensity," said head coach Tim Barrera. "In our last game we really didn't have that mindset, so we stressed that to the players this game."

For the second straight match UNC played toe-to-toe with their opponent in the first half. Both squads got off four shots each in the 45 minutes of play.

The Bears had a great look at goal in the 16^th minute of the half, off the corner kick from junior midfielder, Rebecca Lancia. The cross from Lancia was directly to the center of the box where sophomore midfielder, Paige Morris headed it straight towards the top left corner of the goal, but the Bison's Sierra Bonham made a leaping save to keep the game even.

UNC continued to pressure offensively, and looked like they would be taking an early lead heading into the locker room. With under a minute remaining in the half, junior forward, Essence Ortiz-Laneir connected with freshman forward, Aleah Strength on a through-ball. Strength found herself one-on-one with the keeper, but the shot went just wide of the left post.

"I thought we did a nice job of moving the ball around in the first half," Barrera said. "We have to be quicker at times, but our first touches on the ball were decent and we are continuing to make progress."

Much like in the CSU game, the Bears came out firing in the second half. UNC got off three shots and played the majority of the first 15 minutes of second half on NDSU's side of the pitch.

Then due to lightning in the area, the game was delayed. The delay seemed to have little effect on either squad after play resumed. Both teams came back out looking for the go-ahead goal.

The Bison struck first, taking advantage of a two-on-one situation with the Bears defense. A cross from Anisha Kinnarath found a wide open Lauren Miller who put it in the back left corner of the goal, to give the Bison an early, 1-0 edge.

It only took UNC 26 seconds to answer. The Bears quickly moved the ball down the field and attempted to cross the ball, but a hand-ball in the box was called on NDSU, which awarded UNC with a penalty kick. Ortiz-Laneir came up big for the Bears on the PK, beating Bonham to tie the game up, at 1-1.

Both teams continued to battle, until Miller came up big again for NDSU, scoring the game-winning goal in the 79th minute of the half.

"Today was a disappointing loss," Barrera stated. "When you only give up three-shots on goal all game, you should walk away with a positive result, but at the end of the day we didn't create enough chances for ourselves, and we didn't defend well."

Lancia led the Bears on the afternoon with four shots, with one shot on-goal. Sophomore goalkeeper, Kaitlin Ruff recorded just one save in the loss.

UNC looks to bounce back against in-state rival, Air Force Friday, Sept. 5 in Colorado Springs, Colorado in their last game of the Colorado Cup. The match is set for 6:00 p.m.

For the most up-to-date news on Northern Colorado women's soccer, follow @unc_bears and @UNCBearsSoccer on Twitter.

photo by Dean Popejoy